A man who left a severed pig’s head outside a Muslim community centre on Boxing Day has avoided a jail sentence.

Office worker Liam Ferrar, 24, received a suspended sentence of 12 weeks after Leicester magistrates’ court heard he was disgusted by his actions and had written a letter of apology to his victims.

Ferrar, of Brook Road, Leicester, pleaded guilty last month to causing religiously aggravated harassment by leaving the frozen pig’s head on the steps of the city’s Thurnby Lodge Community Centre on December 26 last year.

District Judge John Temperley described the offence as being ‘to some extent planned, premeditated and targeted’.

The district judge told Ferrar: ‘You were well aware of the significance of your actions.

‘You knew that what you did would cause great distress, indeed that was your intention.’

The court heard that Ferrar was under the influence of alcohol when he placed the pig’s head – which had been stored in a freezer for several months – in an area where it could not be avoided by adults and children arriving for prayers.

Stressing that the offence had taken place against a background of protests at the community centre’s use as a place-of-worship, District Judge Temperley added: ‘It is easy to imagine the shock, distress and disgust (those who discovered the pig’s head) would have felt.

‘The witness statements I have read bear testimony to the serious impact of your actions, but the harm you caused goes further.

‘Others in the local community and beyond would also have been affected when news of this incident spread, prompting profound alarm, fear and insecurity.

‘It should have been obvious that what you did was intimidatory and would only serve to enflame an already tense and volatile situation.’

Ferrar, whom the court heard regularly gave his time and energy to local good causes, was also ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid community work and pay £85 in costs.